The Washington Post Doesn't Print My Letter

This letter appeared last week in the Washington Post:

Israel Must Give Up the West Bank Settlements

Saturday, April 11, 2009; A12

Last month, we traveled to the West Bank to see in person what was happening in this disputed land. Because seeing the Israeli settlement activities in the West Bank transformed our thinking on the Israeli-Palestinian question, we read with interest Elliott Abrams's remarks regarding settlements ["The Settlement Freeze Fallacy," op-ed, April 8].

Previously, we had thought it was Palestinian intransigence that prevented a two-state solution. A look at the settlements demolishes this explanation. The settlements and the maze of Israelis-only roads and military checkpoints to sustain them makes clear that successive Israeli governments -- Labor and Likud alike, as Mr. Abrams noted -- have actively pursued policies aimed at colonizing the West Bank.

That prevents the establishment of a viable and contiguous Palestinian state, and we are saddened that the conversation has degraded to the point that we now discuss whether illegal land grabs ought to be frozen rather than uprooted.

Unlike the previous administration, of which Mr. Abrams was a part, the Obama administration indicates that it values the international standing of the United States. We hope that President Obama will encourage the Israeli government to relinquish all of its settlements or forgo the considerable aid that implicates the United States in that government's activities in the eyes of much of the world.

GREGORY EOW, New Haven, Conn. | BRIAN RUSH SIMPSON, New York

I sent this letter but, of course, it was not published:

Gregory Eow and Brian Rush Simpson, responding to Elliot Abrams op-ed (April 8) assert in their letter (April 11) that"Israel Must Give Up the West Bank Settlements". But consider this: if we were to refer to Arab residential locations in Israel as "settlements" and suggest that Israel, for peace, must be granted freedom from Arab colonization so that it could have a viable and contiguous Jewish state, would Eow and Simpson agree? Would they even go as far as to insist on Arabs relinquishing all their settlements, thus creating an all-Jewish state in Israel to match, what they imply, will be an all-Arab state in a future "Palestine"? Is this the way to peace?